R. Kelly’s Transgender Child Comes Out

Singer R. Kelly talked about his transgender son for the first time on Sunday during an interview with Nina Chantele for Chicago’s WGCI. The singer said, “Well, you don’t really want to open this up with saying my daughter is becoming my son.”

Early this month, there were reports that R. Kelly’s daughter Jaya Kelly, now called Jay, came out on his Ask.fm page. Since then, R. Kelly has never addressed the announcement until the WGCI interview.

At first, R. Kelly seemed to imply that Jay’s announcement was a rumor despite the fact that he made the announcement on his own page. “Always believe what you see with your own eyes that is. Always believe what you see. That is the best way to go about this business.” The singer also said that he has heard a lot of things about people that were never true. “You gotta know there’s a backstory. There’s a background. That’s why you can’t judge nobody,” he said.

Jay is the youngest child of R. Kelly from his ex-wife and Hollywood Exes star Andrea Kelly. On his Ask.fm page, Jay said that he has identified himself as a male since he was six or seven years old. His mom has been supportive of his coming out. “My mom was like, ‘Baby, you know I love you if you were bi, gay, lesbian, you name it and I would still love you so much,’” Jay wrote.

Jay also shared that his sister has been supportive and she calls him “handsome” and “little brother.”

He also revealed that he and his sister are not close to their father, but their older brother is. “I absolutely love my mother… and yea my dad has not reached out,” he wrote.

Later in the interview, R. Kelly said “No matter what they are or who they are, they’re still your kids, you love them, you know? You’ve got to support them. You want to support them. At the end of the day it’s not about me no more. It’s about three lovely, lovely kids that I am in love with and that’s in love with me.” R. Kelly concluded the video by saying that he wants to keep his family affairs private.

Jay said that he is eager to go have gender realignment operations, but he knows that he is still young. “I believe I am a boy and want surgery, and the medication to help me be who I was supposed to be.”